The Central Procurement Technical Unit (CPTU) of Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Ministry of Planning, has been operating a citizen portal (citizen.cptu.gov.bd) called Sorkari Kroy Batayan since 26 Aug 2020 that allows citizens to access public procurement data.
The interactive web portal aims to enhance transparency and accountability in the process of public procurement by providing relevant information in line with the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
This is part of the government’s commitment to let people know about public expenditures because people have the right to know how their money is spent on procurement.
About 80 per cent of Annual Development Programme and 45 per cent of the total national budget are spent on public procurement.
The CPTU has developed the citizen portal under the Digitizing Implementation Monitoring and Public Procurement Project (DIMAPPP) supported by the World Bank.
Director General of CPTU and Additional Secretary Md. Shoheler Rahman Chowdhury is now taking ahead implementation of the reform agenda on public procurement.
“We have started the journey and its upgradation will be a continuous process. We are the agents of citizens and it is our responsibility to provide them timely information on public procurement,” says the DG of CPTU about the portal.
Task Team Leader of DIMAPPP and Senior Procurement Specialist of the World Bank Ishtiak Siddique says this is a big step towards improving transparency and efficiency in public procurement and contract implementation. The portal also has extensive scope to analyze procurement data and take policy decisions to improve procurement and implementation performance. He also said utilization of data analytics can help reduce 5 to 10 per cent of costs in procurement.
From the portal, citizens can get information about country-wide procurement of goods, works and services. The portal also allows customization or search function through features as sorting or filtering as well as graphically present data. They can remain updated on different steps of procurement in their localities as well. In addition, citizens can also interact through citizen blogs and CPTU social media that are connected with this portal. Through the platform, citizens can raise their voice and put their observations on public procurement.
Policy makers, officials of procuring entities, experts, researchers and others will be able to download procurement data following the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) to conduct analysis and research work to understand procurement performance.
The Citizen Portal on public procurement is linked to the CPTU website. The portal will be updated with information mainly from e-GP system. Apart from that, the CPTU publishes information from different sources such as government agencies, citizen engagement platforms on public procurement, etc.
(Shafiul Alam is now a Senior Communication Consultant, DIMAPPP)
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